The present invention relates to a currency acceptor and dispenser intended for use in electronic gaming machines, vending machines and the like.
In the early 1990""s there was a fundamental change in the performance and capability of gaming machines initiated by the incorporation of bill acceptors into such machines. Bill acceptors are devices which receive paper currency or notes and, using a validator having both hardware and software components, the received currency or note is scanned with a variety of sensors and the sensor information is analyzed to determine (1) authenticity and (2) denomination of the currency or note from the scanned data. If the note is determined to be authentic currency, e.g. a United States $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100 bill or other legal tender currency, the note is transported to a cash box within the bill acceptor for storage. Further, based upon the denomination of the accepted currency or note, a signal is sent from the validator to the host machine""s controller or processor to cause the machine to accumulate a corresponding amount of credits within the machine""s credit meter representing the cash value or credits available for purchasing products or wagering, in the case of a gaming machine. As the user purchases products from or plays the machine, the purchase price or wager is debited from the credit meter. In the case of a gaming machine, wins are either accumulated as credits or paid out in coins. Acceptors of this type are known and are discussed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,039 issued Jan. 26, 1999 to Suzuki.
Although the incorporation of bill acceptors into gaming machines has been a tremendous success for casinos, for example by increasing player retention and revenues, the success has proven to create certain unforeseen consequences. Casinos have had to adapt to accommodate a shift in employee resources as a result of the fact that up to eighty-five percent of the money received by a gaming machine, termed the xe2x80x9cdropxe2x80x9d in the industry, is now in the form of currency inserted into the bill acceptor as opposed to coins which have historically been used by customers to accumulate credits and used by the gaming machine to payout wins. This shift from the use of coins to currency by the customers has increased the personnel and logistical demands on the currency collection and counting rooms as well as creating fundamental shifts in how change booths and casino personnel operate. The net effect is that casinos have become an organized note recycling system. Currency or notes go from the player into the bill acceptor of a gaming machine, from which they are periodically collected by a xe2x80x9cdrop crewxe2x80x9d of casino employees and taken to a counting room where the currency is sorted and counted. From the counting room, a significant percentage of the currency or notes is delivered to change booths or floor cashiers for return back to the successful players in the form of change or payouts.
The incorporation of bill acceptors has thus caused a shift in the human resource requirements of casinos and slot machine managers. Although most of the currency or notes deposited into the gaming machines is received in the form of currency as opposed to coins, the predominant method of returning winnings to a customer for amounts less than a couple of hundred credits is in the form of coins or tokens from the machine coin hopper. In current slot machines, a xe2x80x9cpayoutxe2x80x9d condition is triggered when a player wishes to obtain a payout of the cash equivalent of the remaining accumulated credits on a gaming machine by depressing a xe2x80x9ccash outxe2x80x9d button, or the player obtains a large win requiring a xe2x80x9chand payxe2x80x9d by a floor cashier. For payouts in excess of a couple of hundred coins, the preferred method of payout is a hand pay where the patron receives currency from a casino employee or floor cashier. The combination of currency input and coin output from a gaming machine has caused a significant increase in the number of gaming machine coin hopper fills and hand pays the casino must handle. Major casinos may experience as many as 40,000 coin hopper fills and hand pays per month. This activity translates into increased employment expenses, since staff must be provided to service the coin hopper fills and hand pays as well as counting and sorting of the bills accepted by the machines, and thus increased overhead for the casinos.
Furthermore, when a large payout requiring a hand pay occurs, the gaming machine locks up or freezes until the amount is paid by the floor cashier and the machine is reset by the floor cashier. In addition, because the normal payout for relatively small numbers of coins is in the form of coins or tokens from the machine""s coin hopper, the coin hopper must have its inventory of coins or tokens replenished by casino employees because the coin hopper is generally not receiving coins deposited by the customers who prefer to use currency accepted by the bill acceptor. Still further, a lock up condition may cause players to wait for a coin hopper to be refilled, or receive a hand pay, even for relatively small payouts if the coin hopper becomes fully depleted. While in a lock-up condition the machine is not available for play.
Since the utilization of the convenient bill acceptors has caused a dramatic shift in the drop received from a player from coins to currency or notes, it should be appreciated that the casino will need to retrieve the currency or notes received by the bill acceptors, and thus the cash boxes are periodically removed from the bill acceptors in the slot machines and taken to a counting room where the currency is removed and counted. Due to the volume of currency to be counted, this cyclic retrieval of the cash boxes and counting function can result in increased personnel costs as well as increased risk of theft. Accordingly, systems capable of combing the benefits of the bill acceptors and a more efficient method of payout reducing employee expenses and overhead would be tremendously beneficial to the gaming industry. In addition, other devices such as vending machines and paypoint service stations having bill acceptors and coin dispensers can suffer from similar or related problems, such as inability to provide change, running out of change and the like, and such devices could also benefit from an improved bill acceptor system.
The present invention is directed to a currency or note acceptor-dispenser validator and a method for its operation which is adapted to provide for faster payouts to customers, which decreases the frequency of hand pay and machine lock up conditions and which is locally and remotely configurable to anticipate increased play periods or the like. Accordingly an acceptor-dispenser validator system for accepting bills, vouchers, script and/or currency (hereinafter, collectively xe2x80x9cnotesxe2x80x9d) into and for distributing currency or a currency equivalent from an electronic gaming machine or alternative type of customer service device is set forth which includes a note acceptor-dispenser assembly to be mounted in or on the machine, the note acceptor-dispenser having a note validator to sense the authenticity, denomination, amount and type of the note passing there through and issue a signal corresponding to the note type to the acceptor-dispenser""s processor and the host machine""s processor for accumulation of credits. A note box is provided to receive deposited notes, as is a note hopper to receive and dispense notes intended for payouts. There is also included means for transporting notes accepted through the note validator to each of the note box and note hopper and for distributing notes from the note hopper to the customer. The acceptor-dispenser""s processor controls the transporting means to (i) direct notes received through the note validator of a selected type for accumulation of credits to said note hopper and the remainder to the note box for retention thereof and (ii) to control the transporting means to transport notes from the note hopper box and/or coin(s) from the machine coin hopper for distribution in response to a payout condition for the machine.
Thus, as notes (currency or casino script) are inserted through the note validator for accumulation of credits, certain specified notes, e.g. $20 bills or casino script notes, are transported to the note hopper to provide an inventory for dispensing the specified notes to the customer in response to a payout condition. Other note denominations, or the specified notes in excess of a pre-selected number of notes to be routed to the note hopper, are routed to the note box for accumulation and subsequent collection. The note box is periodically removed from the machine for counting of the notes. When a payout is required, the machine""s processor signals the machine""s coin hopper control, note hopper control and note hopper transport means to cause them to dispense a combination of coins and notes to the customer having a combined value equal to the amount of the payout. In this manner, the machine can provide a substantial payout to a customer in either currency or casino coupons without seriously depleting the number of coins in the coin hopper and without requiring a hand pay by a floor cashier.
The note acceptor-dispenser validator preferably has data processor capabilities, and the ability to communicate with the gaming machine""s processor and any remote gaming machine accounting system to allow continuous monitoring and accounting and to confirm the payout to the customer if necessary. In addition, the accepter-dispenser validator""s data processor may be locally (at the gaming machine) or remotely configured to accumulate more or fewer notes in the note hopper. Thus, in anticipation of a high utilization period, for example a busy weekend, the data processor may be instructed to cause the note accepter dispenser validator to accumulate more notes in the note hopper in anticipation of more frequent payouts to customers. Further, the data processor may be reconfigured or instructed to cause the gaming machine to inventory a different denomination of notes or currency in the note hopper or to only inventory certain notes such as casino script or the like.